"John McCain's "Forceful Debate Performance" By David Yepsen - Des Moines Register

"McCain's strong defense of the
U.S. surge in Iraq, which was initially unpopular with Americans but has had
some success in quelling violence, is looking prophetic." --

Des Moines Register's David Yepsen

Excerpts From David Yepsen's Column in the Des Moines Register Today

By David Yepsen

Des Moines Register November 29, 2007

There were three clear winners in Wednesday's debate among the Republican presidential candidates: John McCain, Mike Huckabee and Fred Thompson.

All of them helped their candidacies, and they should move up in the polls as a result.
The rest of the field, especially Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani, didn't have such a good night. The Romney-Giuliani tiff with each other over sanctuary cities at the beginning of the evening diminished them both because it didn't look very presidential. ...

McCain had his strongest debate of the campaign. He was forceful and blunt throughout. He had the single best performance of the evening when he firmly put down Ron Paul by accusing him of favoring the sort of isolationist foreign policies that led to World War II.

McCain's strong defense of the U.S. surge in Iraq, which was initially unpopular with Americans but has had some success in quelling violence, is looking prophetic.

McCain also showed courage in standing for his unpopular immigration-reform bill. And he brushed back Romney's evasive answer on the use of waterboarding to question U.S. prisoners. McCain, who was tortured as a prisoner in Vietnam and who opposes it now, said he was "astonished" by the equivocating. ...

Read Entire David Yepsen Column In Des Moines Register

David Yepsen of the Des Moines Register is generally regarded as one of the two or three most influential political columnists in the nation, given the prominence the Iowa Caucuses have in presidential politics